Demon Dungeon 1

Demons are ethereal beings, possessing physical bodies only when summoned into the physical world. They spend most of their time as disembodied spirits drifting through the demon world, surrounded by their kin.

So Murmur was quite surprised when she found herself floating in an empty void, devoid of any demons but herself. But it was not completely empty, as floating in the void with her was single, beautifully red crystal ball.

As the only thing around other than herself, Murmur curiously floated up to it. It was warm to the touch, and pulsed to the rhythm of a beating heart. As she held it, her own body started to throb in time with the orb, and just as the two synchronized, the orb shattered, and everything went black.

Or rather, white? Murmur found herself in yet another strange place, a great green plain, stretching out in all directions. The physical world, perhaps? She looked around, but saw no trace of a summoner. How, exactly, she was summoned without a summoner she was unsure, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She went to move, only to find that she was stuck in place, no, stuck in some sort of transparent sphere.

She pushed with all her might against the barrier, and was surprised to find it give way, spreading out before her. But the barrier only receded a few feet before stopping and starting to tremble.

> Location chosen
> Establishing dungeon

“Wait, what!? Dungeon!? Who said anything about a dungeon!?”

Suddenly, the space around her plunged down into the earth, pushing away dirt until a simple shaft was formed. After ten or so feet, the space expanded, forming a moderately sized chamber. The space then expanded again, another chamber budding off the first. And in this new chamber, a single, beautifully red crystal ball formed.

> Dungeon [nameless] established
> Entryway formed
> Core room formed

Murmur held her head, suddenly dizzy. Somehow, she could _feel_ the space around her, as if it were a part of her own body. With dawning horror, she realized what had happened. She had somehow, for some reason, _become_ a dungeon.



There are two kinds of dungeon. The first kind, with solid, spherical cores, were known as inanimate dungeons. The second kind, with living, breathing cores, were know as living dungeons. Murmur, of course, was neither. Or perhaps she was both.

The first thing Murmur noticed was that, despite being in the physical world, she didn’t have a physical body. She could feel it around her, but she wasn't _part_ of it. It was as if the demon world, or a small piece of it, had been overlaid on the physical one, restricted to the domain of the dungeon.

Knowledge came to her, as if written into her very being. Every inanimate dungeon had a spiritual body, a consciousness that managed the dungeon. And she was this dungeon’s spiritual body. But, as far as she knew, that consciousness was supposed to come into existence alongside the dungeon, and Murmur had definitely existed before the dungeon had.

She felt her situation was closer to that of a living dungeon, where an existing being got caught up in the formation of a new dungeon and was made into its core. But the dungeon she was trapped in, no, _her_ dungeon, definitely had a core of its own. Perhaps the dungeon tried to make her into its core, but because she was already a spiritual existence, it instead assigned her as its spiritual body and formed its own, proper core?

That _felt_ right, or at least close to right, but she really had no idea how it could have happened. She had never been a particularly strong demon, but she had been around for a while and heard a fair number of things, but never anything as bizarre as a demon becoming a dungeon.

“Oh well... What should I do now? I’m pretty sure something bad will happen to me if I let this dungeon die...

“First off, I feel uncomfortable just leaving my core on the ground like this. But how do I actually do anything with this dungeon?”

> Form core pedestal in core room?

“Uhh... yes?”

Before Murmur’s eyes, the ground beneath her core rose up into a simple stone pedestal. With it off the ground, she felt much more comfortable, much less... itchy. But there were still things that bothered her, she couldn’t relax until she fixed them.

“Okay, that’s better, but I still feel... exposed. I don't like my core being right next to the entryway like this. How do I add a room? Do I just... ask?”

> Form new room?

With her assent, the ground shook and the core room was pushed aside as a new room formed between it and the entryway.

“Much better, now let’s get some monsters in here to defend the place! But what sort of monsters would be good? I don’t think I can summon anything very strong... Maybe some sort of demon? That feels right somehow. Okay, let’s try it! Summon me a demon, strange console thing!”

> Creating demon...
> Searching for valid template...
> Template found
> Spawning lesser demon

As the strange console’s words trailed off, a moderately sized demon popped into existence. A monstrous goat hunched over on its hind legs, bearing the red skin and horns emblematic of demon-kind, it was the very image of a modern lesser demon. It looked around, saw Murmur, and bowed.

“Boss.”

There was only one problem...

“You. Lesser demon. Why... why are you a spirit!? How are you supposed to defend the dungeon like this!?”

“Sorry, boss! But until I'm summoned, I'm just a spirit like you!”

“Didn’t I just summon you!? No, wait, the console said it spawned you... So if I 'spawn' a demon, it appears as a spirit?

“So if I summon you properly, hmm...”

Demons are a special existence. As ethereal beings, they cannot interact with the physical world unless summoned. But if their summoned body is killed, they simply return to the demon world, no worse for wear. A demon can only truly die if they are prevented from returning to the demon world and killed as a spirit in the physical world, and few possess the skills necessary to accomplish such a thing.

“Even if you die, you’ll just return here, and I can just summon you again... Isn’t that super efficient!? Okay, this might actually work!

“Now... how do I summon a demon? I’ve always been the one summoned, I’ve never actually done it myself.”

Summoning a demon takes three things: a circle, a vessel, and a sacrifice. Place the vessel in the circle, perform the sacrifice, and call out to the demon. If your circle is correct, your vessel suitable, and your sacrifices sufficient, a demon will surely come.

As a demon, and one who has been summoned before, Murmur was of course aware of these things. But awareness was not practice, and it took a fair amount of fiddling with the console before she was able to properly summon her lesser demon into the physical world.

“Do I really have to do all that each time I summon one of my demons? I feel a bit sorry for all those summoners out there... If I’m ever summoned again, I’ll try to be a bit nicer...

“But seriously, I’ve got better things to do than make vessels all day. Like... I don’t know, but things! Lesser demon! You... aren’t going to be any good at making things, are you... Um... what does everyone else do when they don’t want to do annoying stuff...

“Oh! Right! Of course! Imps! Those useless things are perfect for menial labor. Console, make me some imps!

> Creating imps...
> Searching for valid template...
> Template found
> Creating imps x3

“Right, you lot! Let’s get to work!”